


Dealing with the Fallout

by Kaospiral



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-08 14:25:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17982806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaospiral/pseuds/Kaospiral
Summary: The day after Tae and Kasumi fail to make it back to the joint festival in time for Popipa's performance, Arisa calls the two of them over to discuss the future of the band.Set immediately after episode 9 of the second season of the anime.





	1. Chapter 1

It was the day after the joint culture festival between Hanasakigawa and Haneoka, and Arisa was currently waiting her basement for a certain duo to arrive. She had decided not to go to school today (not exactly unusual given her history) for fear of not being able to control her emotions when she inevitably saw Kasumi or Tae. Due to this, she had received various texts from Rimi, Saaya and Kasumi asking where she was, if she was ok, etc. Tae hadn't sent any, but she wasn't really expecting her to, considering how broken she was the day before.

The reason that she was sitting in her basement now was that she had messaged Kasumi and Tae, asking them both to come and meet her there. Arisa wasn't actually sure whether they would show up or not, especially given her less than welcoming reactions to the two of them when they finally arrived back at school, but her doubts were soon cleared when she heard a knock on the door above her.

“It's open,” she stated in the most monotone voice she could muster at the time. What she had to say to the two of them was important, so she hardly wanted to scare them off right from the outset.

The two girls opened the door and began to walk down the stairs. Both of them had a pretty good idea as to why Arisa had called them out, as it didn't take a genius to figure that one out, but because they knew why, they were particularly nervous. Kasumi looked down to Arisa and gave her the best smile she could muster given their current situation, while Tae just looked down at her feet, avoiding eye contact with their blonde friend.

As they made their way to the bottom of the stairs, they saw that their usual seating arrangement had been changed. The couch had been completely moved aside, with only 3 regular chairs in place. Arisa was sitting on one of them, while the other two sad next to each other, facing her. Tae and Kasumi each took their place on the vacant seats, and the three of them sat together in silence for close to a minute as Arisa took the time to gather her thoughts.

“So,” she started, “I'm gonna assume you two know what the point of this discussion is going to be.”

The two guitarists looked at each other and nodded as Kasumi stood up and started to speak. “Of course, and we're both extremely sorry for missing our performance. We know we ruined it for everyone, not just in Popipa, but Roselia, and Lock as well. We promise that it'll never happen again!” Kasumi then proceed to bow to Arisa, and Tae soon followed suit, hoping that the gesture would show her how sorry they really were and ease the anger the two knew she was trying to hide from them.

Arisa didn't move for a few seconds, before asking “Tae, is there anything you'd like to add?” Tae simply shook her head and sat down along with Kasumi, not yet feeling confident enough to speak to Arisa, especially now that she wasn't using her nickname.

“Well then, I guess it's my turn to speak,” Arisa said, standing up and walking towards her two band mates. “First of all, the reason why I didn't invite Rimi and Saaya here today is because these are my feelings alone, and I saw no need to involve them in this, at least for the time being. Secondly, I'm not going to spend this time berating you for what you did yesterday specifically, but for your actions in general.”

“What do you mean?” Kasumi asked, fully expecting Arisa to talk about just yesterday's events.

“I'm talking about your own personal flaws Kasum,” began Arisa. “Starting with you, yesterday was just another example of how impulsive you are, thinking only with your heart and almost never with your brain. There was absolutely not need for you to chase after Tae, she knows where the school is and how to get here. All you leaving did was prevent us from having even a chance to perform. If it came down to it, we probably could have had Lock cover for Tae just for that one performance, especially considering how good she was. But you wouldn't know that, since you were off on another one of your idealistic adventures that made no logical sense whatsoever!” At this point Arisa’s voice had started to increase in volume, even as she tried to hold herself back. “Look, as the leader of Popipa, it's your job to be able to to make decisions for the greater benefit of this band. Yes, myself and the other two aren't blameless in this mess, we could have done more to try and stop you. Still, at times like this, I wonder whether or not you're capable being the leader we need.

Kasumi just stared at Arisa. Sure, she's said some mean stuff to her before, but usually that was just tied to not doing her homework, or messing around too much at practice. This was something far bigger than stuff like that, and the singer had no response to Arisa’s words.

“That being said, you're not the biggest problem we're facing right now,” Arisa stated, turning to look at Tae. “You don't need me to tell you that you messed up big time, but the problem isn't over, and you know it.” Tae, for the first time that day, looked up into Arisa’s eyes, and she saw a face that was both determined, but also somewhat scared.

“Yesterday, you performed for another band, knowing full well that there was a chance that you would miss our performance, and there is every chance that it might happen again.”

“But I didn't know there would be so many encores,” Tae said, finally finding her voice.

“And yet you still did those encores, putting the chances of you getting back in time, which were already dicey to begin with, at almost nothing,” Arisa hit back.

“I couldn't say no to Rei, she's my childhood friend,” responded Tae. “Besides, even after the encores, I still believed I could-”

“God, I swear you're just as bad as Kasumi sometimes!” Arisa interrupted, fists clenched as she stated to pace back and forth in front of the two other girls. “Look, yesterday you made a decision between us and R.A.S, and you chose R.A.S. Today, I'm asking you to make the same decision again.”

“W-what do you mean?” Kasumi asked, as Tae simply stared back at Arisa.

“Exactly what I said. Hanazono Tae, I want to you to quit R.A.S for good, or else Popipa is finished.” Kasumi and Tae just stared in shock at what Arisa had just said. Arisa was arguably the most committed to Popipa out of all 5 of them, and here she was, threatening to disband it? Kasumi was the first to break out of her shocked silence.

“What are you saying Arisa? You can't just kick Tae out by yourself, we have to talk about it with the whole band,” Kasumi started with as much confidence as she could muster. “Besides, it's unfair to tell her to leave just because of one obstacle, surely we can overcome it if we just work together?”

Arisa simply sighed. “I'm not dumb enough to think I can tell Tae to leave the band without anybody else's input. What I can do however, is leave the band myself, which would effectively more than likely end the band as we now know it.”

“You, leaving?” Kasumi replied. “Wait a minute, isn't that like, blackmailing or something?” Arisa shrugged her shoulders at her response.

“Perhaps it is, but with someone as indecisive as Tae, drastic measures need to be taken.” she said, though, Kasumi noted that her voice didn't seem as confident as it was before. “So Tae, what's it going to be?”

Tae sat there, trying to avoid Arisa’s glare, and thought about her answer. She loved Popipa, she really did. The time spent with the band was some of the best in her entire life, and she would do almost anything for it and it's members. On the other hand, Rei was her oldest friend, and the thought of letting her down by leaving her R.A.S while they still needed her hurt her just as much as the thought of leaving Popipa did. Weighing the two options together, she gathered her courage and looked back at Arisa.

“I'll do both. I'll find a way, I promise!” Tae exclaimed, hoping that her confidence would win over and warm Arisa’s heart. Unfortunately for her, Tae’s comment was the straw that broke the camel's back.

“YOU DON’T GET IT, DO YOU?” Arisa yelled, scaring both Kasumi and Tae greatly, as this was the most angry the two of them had ever seen her be. “That mindset is the exact same thing that got us into this stupid situation in ten first place! You obviously haven't learned a single thing from this whole experience.” Arisa then began to turn around and walk up the stairs. “You can't always take the easy way out Hanazono, and sometimes you'll find that trying to do so ends up hurting more people than just yourself.” As she reached the door, she turned her head to the two girls below her, and stated “I'm leaving the band. You can stay here for as long as you need to, but once you've left, please don't come back.”

“Arisa, wait!” Kasumi yelled, but it was too late, as the door had already closed by the time Kasumi could react. She turned around to Tae, and could see the girl had her hands over her eyes for the second time in two days, as she began to sob.

“I m-messed up again, d-didn't I?” Tae choked out. All Kasumi could do is hug her and tell her that everything was going to be alright, whether she believed it herself or not.

As Arisa leaned on the back of the door, listening to Tae’s crying, she whispered to herself “Idiots,” and proceeded to walk away.


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a tough week for Kasumi. Ever since Arisa had left Popipa, she had been avoiding the rest of her former bandmates, only ever talking to them when it was about school related things like homework. Kasumi hoped that it was just because talking to them after what had happened would be kind of awkward, and not because she hated them now.

She wasn’t the only one giving the group the silent treatment however. While Tae still hung out with the other three former members of Popipa at lunch, she barely spoke a word, still unsure of herself and what she wanted to do from now on. She still attended R.A.S rehearsals and tried her best, but she just couldn’t shake the words Arisa had said to her.

All in all, everyone was having a pretty bad time.

“Saayaaa, what should I do!?” Kasumi complained while lying on Saaya’s lap during lunch break.

“Kasumi, you’ve asked me that every day for the past week now, and my answer remains the same as before, I don’t know,” Saaya replied calmly, having known Kasumi for long enough to be used to her being in this kind of mood when things weren’t going her way.

“I know, but you always seem to know what to do, so I figured if I kept asking you for long enough, then you’d figure out something.” said Kasumi, sitting back up and taking a bite from her sandwich.

“I swear, you put too much faith in me sometimes Kasumi,” Saaya chuckled. “What do you think about this situation RImi-rin?”

“Well, it doesn’t seem like Arisa is going to come back on her own,” Rimi said, trying her best not to sound too negative. “I talked to Yuri-nee about it, and she said to give it some time before talking to her about it again, but she never mentioned how much time.”

“Why can’t things just be easy for once?” Kasumi asked to nobody in particular, flopping onto the grass as she stared up at the blue sky.

“I'm gonna go and practice,” Tae mumbled, before getting up quickly and making her way back towards the classrooms. The other 3 girls had grown used to these spontaneous actions over the last couple of days, and decided together it would be best to leave Tae to her own devices.

Just as lunch break approached its end and the three of them began to pack up their stuff, an unexpected visitor walked up towards them.

“Toyama–san, Yamabuki–san, Ushigome–san. Do you have a minute?” Sayo stated, her expression as unreadable as ever.

“Sayo–senpai, its rare to see you outside of the student council offices,” Saaya replied. “What do you need!?”

Sayo looked around the girls for a second, before asking “Is Hanazono–san not with you?”

“She left a little while ago to go and practice her guitar,” said Rimi, curious as to why Sayo needed to talk with Tae.

“I can understand that feeling,” Sayo muttered to herself, before returning to her reason for coming here. “Oh well, I am sure I can trust you three to repeat this message to her. Minato–san messaged me earlier to tell Hanazono–san this.”

As she relayed the message, the former Popipa member’s eyes widened, and Kasumi let out and extremely loud “REALLY!?” in reply.

“Yes, though I would prefer if you could learn to control your voice somewhat Toyama–san. Need I remind you we are on school grounds,” Sayo responded, rubbing her ears a bit before turning around and walking back to the student council room.

“Oh, sorry Sayo–senpai,” Kasumi quickly said, before turning around to Saaya and Rimi. “Guys, we need to tell O–Tae this IMMEDIATELY,” she exclaimed, instantly forgoing Sayo’s words of advice.

“Message her that we need to see her, since there's not going to be any time before class starts to tell her,” said Saaya, as the girls made their way back to the main building, with each of them beyond excited to tell Tae the news they had just received.

***

Tae wasn't really paying attention to where she was walking. She had told the others that she was going to practice her guitar, but the truth was she just needed some more time alone. No matter how much she mulled over her situation, she still couldn't bring herself to make a decision. It frustrated her that she still remained as indecisive as she was.

“You have a rather unpleasant expression on your face, Tae–chan,” came a voice that broke Tae out of her inner conflict.

“Chisato–senpai!” Tae exclaimed. “Was I really that obvious?”

“Even an untrained eye could tell you're struggling with something inside. I know what happened between you and your band, do you want to talk about it?”

Tae thought about declining briefly, before deciding against it, letting Chisato know what was on her mind.

“I can see why you're so bothered about it,” Chisato remarked after hearing the full story from Tae. “Do you want me to give you some advice?”

“I'll accept anything at this point, so please, give me all the advice you have,” Tae sighed, praying for anything to help her resolve this situation.

“Well,” Chisato began, “I haven't been in as quite a dire situation as you are in regards to the relationships you have with your friends, but I do know what it's like to have misunderstandings with those you are close to.” Remembering the situation with Aya and their Yura Yura Ring Dong Dance performance and how dumb she was made her wince slightly, before she resumed her speech. “The most important thing about friendship, at least in my opinion, is about letting other know how you truly feel. They're never going to understand if you hide your emotions away from them. Even if you're scared about what they'll say, if they're truly your friends, then they'll understand and accept you, no matter what.”

Something finally clicked in Tae’s brain, and she immediately ran over to Chisato and hugged her. “Thank you so much Chisato–senpai! I think I understand what I need to do now, and it's all because of you!” After she had finished thanking her upperclassman, she turned around and sprinted out of the school.

“Wait Tae–chan, school isn't over yet!” Chisato yelled in vain, as Tae was already out of her view. “Oh well,” she said to herself, “I guess there are some things that are more important than school.” Though, she thought that their teachers might think otherwise.

***

She didn't know how long it took to run to CHU²’s apartment, but Tae had arrived before she even knew it. Bursting through the doors, she found a surprised looking CHU² and Rei sitting together.

“Hana–chan, what are you doing here?” Rei questioned. “Rehearsal doesn't start for another couple of hours.”

“I know that, but there's something I really needed to tell you,” Tae responded. Taking a deep breath, she bowed her head to the two R.A.S members in front of her. “I'm really sorry, but I can't continue to be your stand in guitarist. I really wanted to be able to do both this and continue to be apart of my bad, but I now realise I was wrong in trying to split my time like that. I didn't want to disappoint you Rei, but I hope you'll be able to forgive me for suddenly leaving like this, and I hope you can still consider me your friend!” Tae stood in her bowed state for a few seconds, preparing herself for any harsh words to come, when she suddenly felt herself being enveloped in a hug.

“Silly Hana–chan, of course I’ll still be your friend,” Rei assured her, a loving smile on her face. “I understood that you being here was only going to be temporary, and I loved the time that we were able to spend playing together. So go back to your band and play your heart out, so that one day we'll both be able to play on the largest stage together.”

“Rei,” Tae said, tears of happiness beginning to form in her eyes.

“It's _no problem_ anyway, we've already scouted a new permanent guitarist, so today was going to be your last rehearsal anyway,” CHU² chimed in with a confident look on her face, as always.

“Really, who is it?” asked Tae, amazed that something so convenient had happened.

“She's a first year at Haneoka Girls High School,” responded CHU². “For some reason, my rival sent me a video of her playing at some festival, and she was so _rocking_ and _amazing_ , so I contacted her with the details that came with the video, and now she's going to join R.A.S for good!”

The description CHU² gave narrowed the field down to only one person that Tae knew, and all she could do was laugh at the irony that the reason everything is working out fine was all due to her mistake in the first place.

“Hey Hana–chan, shouldn't you be at school right now?” Rei asked, and Tae’s face immediately flushed red with embarrassment.

“I-I should get going now,” she quickly muttered, before turning around and breaking into another run (something she seemed to have being doing a lot of recently). “Goodbye Rei, CHU², I hope to see you sometime soon.” With that, she closed the door, and begun thinking about her next plan of action: getting Arisa to forgive her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter down, and everyone is thankfully in a much happier place now (except Arisa, who'll get her resolution in the final chapter).
> 
> Sorry if this chapter feels a little rushed, especially with Tae and Chisato's conversation. I didn't want to drag out the angst for too long, and plus I don't have time to write too much if I want to complete this before the next episode.
> 
> Thanks for reading, feel free to leave any comments, and the final chapter should hopefully be done and uploaded in a day or two.


	3. Chapter 3

It was Saturday, and Arisa out shopping for some food. It was her usual routine, but it also provided her with a chance to get out of the house and think about things. The past week had been tough for her, but she knew it must have been worse for the rest of Popipa, especially Tae. She didn't want to be doing this whole 'silent treatment' business, because as much as she hated to outwardly admit it, those 4 were the best friends she's ever had. However, she also felt it was a necessary evil in order for Tae to learn to be more decisive. Even though she would be heartbroken if Tae decided to stay with R.A.S and leave Popipa for good, it was still a better outcome than trying to do both at once, and not being fully committed to either.

In short, she really missed hanging out with her friends.

These thoughts permeated Arisa's mind throughout the shopping trip, and in what seemed like no time, she had bought everything that she needed and arrived back home. However, a certain sound broke her out of those thoughts as she got closer to the entrance to her basement. It was nice and soothing, but more importantly, it was the sound of a guitar. Arisa dropped her shopping on the ground without hesitation and ran inside.

The sound of the door being slammed open brought Tae's guitar playing to a stop, as the two girls stared at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity. Slowly, Arisa made her way down the stair, and decided that she'd better be the one to start a conversation.

"Look Tae, I think that—"

"No Arisa, let me speak first," Tae said, and the confidence and certainty in her voice caught Arisa off guard. Taking Arisa's non-objection as a sign of affirmation, Tae begun to talk.

"I know I've caused you a lot of trouble over the past week, and even more before that. For as much as I've said that I want to improve myself and my playing, I've done it without embracing the most important thing about improving. Commitment. I let my fears get the best of me, I became too scared to make decisions for myself. I understand that now, and I'm confident that I've now overcome it. So, here I am tomake up for my mistakes."

Taking a breath, Tae then bowed as low as she possibly could, even lower than she was when she apologised to Rei and CHU2. "I'm sorry for being so stupid before, but I now know what I truly want. Popipa is where I belong, and from now on it will stay that way no matter what. So, Arisa, would you please rejoin Popipa?"

"Idiot" was all that Tae heard in response, and when she looked up, tears had begun to form in Arisa's eyes. "How can I say no after you've said all that?" Arisa muttered, before running into Tae's arms and letting out all the emotions she had held back for the past week. Tae, surprised by Arisa's unexpected display of heartfelt emotion, could only embrace the girl as she cried, a thankful smile on her face after reaching this happy end.

Well, that was until the basement doors burst open once again, and Kasumi entered, with Saaya and Rimi not far behind.

"O–Tae, we're he—" Kasumi exclaimed, before noticing Tae and Arisa embracing below her. "Hey, no fair, I wanna hug too!" Before the two girls had a chance to react, Kasumi had already jumped on top of them, causing all three of them to fall to the ground. With nobody really sure what was happening anymore, all they could do was laugh with happiness at finally being together again. Even Arisa joined in, though her laughs were still infused with the tears she couldn't stop from coming.

After a couple of minutes like this, the five of them were all sat together in their usual spots, talking once again like the friends and bandmates they were.

"So, was R.A.S fine with this in the end?" Arisa asked.

"Yeah, when I went to tell them I was leaving, they said they'd already found a new permanent guitarist," answered Tae.

"And you'll NEVER guess who it was they found," Kasumi boldly claimed, though the way she said it gave Arisa the impression it could only be on person.

"Was it Lock?" Arisa questioned, and the look of amazement on Kasumi's face nearly sent Arisa into another fit of laughter.

"How did you know!?"

"Well, the tone of your voice made it pretty obvious it was someone we all knew," Saaya commented. "Once she knew that, there was really only one possible answer."

"Aww, and here I thought I was going to surprise Arisa," Kasumi pouted.

"Don't worry Kasumi, you surprise me enough naturally, though not always for the better," Arisa said, with the smirk on her face telling Kasumi the comment was mostly in good nature.

"Ummm, guys," said Rimi, and the other four turned towards their usually quiet band mate. "Now that we're all back together again, we should probably get back to work on our self-sponsored live show."

It took the rest of them a moment to process what Rimi had just said, before Arisyelled "WE FORGOT ABOUT THE SELF-SPONSORED LIVE!"

"Well, we were kinda busy with other problems to be fair," Saaya pointed out, but Arisa was in no mood to hear them.

"We need to get practising as soon as possible!" She exclaimed. "Rimi–rin, Saaya, Kasumi, you three get the instruments together. O–Tae and I will clear up the room."

With her instructions given, everyone got one with what they were told to do. As Arisa and Tae were moving the chairs out of the way, Tae said to her "You used my nickname again, thank you."

Arisa simply shrugged her shoulders. "I just called you by your name, nothing special about it." With that, the two of them went back to work, both happy to have Popipa back together again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The happy ending has now been reached!
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has read this fic, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. And, I managed to achieve my goal of completing it before episode 10 came out (though only by a few hours at the time of writing this). 
> 
> Once again, thank you all, and I hope you've enjoyed it.

**Author's Note:**

> So episode 9 hit me like a truck, and I was inspired to write this slightly angsty piece about the aftermath, specifically Arisa's reaction to it. Because I've written this relatively quickly, I'm not sure how good it ended up, but I tried to keep them as in character as possible.
> 
> I'm hoping to finish the rest of the story before the next episode comes out (where hopefully the resolution is less angsty, since I don't want to see my precious Popipa girls sad for too long), and will add more character tags as they appear (mostly just the rest of Popipa, plus a couple of other characters who will play relatively important roles. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and feel free to leave any comments and constructive criticism.


End file.
